The LD pistol from Mac-1

The LD is a specialized pistol modification for long-range air pistol shooting.

What is it?The LD is a long-barrelled customized Crosman Mark I target pistol. It’s made by Mac-1 Airguns and has been around for more than a decade. It was designed primarily as a sillouhette gun, but it’s also used by many shooters who never compete. It has rifle-like accuracy and rifle-like bulk, without the length and weight of a rifle.

DescriptionOver the years Mac-1, has offered guns with all sorts of barrel lengths, but they seem to have settled on a 13″ .22 caliber barrel. According to their website, they do not offer the gun in .177. The barrel is a German make, but not Lothar Walther. Rumor has it that they use Weihrauch barrels, but I can’t confirm that. It’s a heavy barrel and they re-contour the bolt probe for better gas flow. Readers of this blog should know by now that a CO2 gun gets its best velocity from a long barrel, so an increase of five inches over the factory length should offer a significant advantage. The designers of the LD have chosen to have more shots at a consistent velocity over raw power. Since they still get 75-100 f.p.s. higher than the factory Mark I, that’s a pretty good decision.

There are open sights, but this pistol is meant to be scoped. In fact, it uses a powerful rifle scope that is held up to the eye when shooting. A 3.5-oz. bulk CO2 tank hangs below the grip, giving enough gas for about 250 powerful shots, but it also serves as an anchor point for the pistol. The tank lowers the center of gravity, which offsets the large scope on top. It also cancels the weight of the long barrel. If you hold the tank against your chest, it steadies the gun. Your non-shooting hand grabs the rear of the scope and holds it to your eye in what looks and feels like a strange way to hold a pistol, but actually gives a very steady hold. The gun is painted black to match the dark barrel.

The gun weighs 61 oz. with an empty tank fitted. Add another 1-1.5 lbs. for a scope, and you can see this “pistol” is really a small carbine. That’s exactly what they intended it to be, and the weight helps you hold steady on target.

A great start!They couldn’t have selected a better gun to start with than the Crosman Mark I. It already has a wonderful trigger and great balance. When they add their modifications, the gun just gets better. You can either supply your own Mark I or II for a discount, or you can just buy the entire gun all customized.

Powerful but not a magnumThe LD is set up to deliver its shots at 500 to 525 f.p.s. when shooting a 13.9-grain lead pellet. That’s not magnum power, but it is considerable. You can hunt with this airgun because it is a .22 and it’s accurate. Squirrels and rabbits out to 35 yards should be okay, and pigeons can be taken out as far as you can hold a 1″ group. RWS Meisterkugeln pellets are the recommended ammo out to 25 yards, but almost any quality pellet works well. I would use JSB Exacts for long-range shooting.

With all that power, the LD is really very quiet and docile. It doesn’t bark or kick because the gas use has been matched to the barrel. When the pellet leaves the muzzle, there isn’t an exhaust of white vapor that is often the case with unbalanced gas guns. The propulsive power of the gas is mostly expended pushing the pellet, leaving little pressure behind to go bang.

Accuracy is up in the rifle category. Once you learn the proper hold, you’ll be amazed at the accuracy you can achieve. I know shooters who can do very well at 50 yards with their LDs. I’ve never shot mine that far; but, at 35 yards, no target the size of a quarter was safe. The pistol retails for $395, if you buy it without a trade-in. That gets you the gun, two tanks and a refill adapter to fill from a bulk CO2 tank. Contact Mac-1 for further details.

17 thoughts on “The LD pistol from Mac-1”

I saw that you advertised the micro-meter tank in one of your blogs. Could you post some shot strings with the tank on a condor .22? I would like to know how consistent it is at highest and lowest power setting. Thanks.

I found this blog really interesting. I’m a professional computer modder,(water cooled, high performance gaming PCs) so anything custom catches my attention.!~ From reading bits of the Mac-1 website I can tell these folks are serious and quite knowledgable about the sport–thanks for letting an airgun newb in on the good stuff. 😉

You shouold update your information as Mac-1 site prices that you quote for an LD with the works are outdated by at least a year and a half and the price as described with adqapter and hangy tnaks if over $500 currently.

I got 675 with 14.3-grain Crosman Premiers. The spread was 666 to 685 on high power.

On low power, I got 423, with a spread of 408 to 521. While that’s too high for long-range shooting, you don’t shoot long range on low power anyway and at 10 meters you can’t tell the difference. The rifle is whisper-quiet at the low setting. It sounds like a Talon SS on high power at the high setting.

The LD would only perform if the air pressure were held to aboiut 1,000 psi, because that’s what the valve is balanced for. You might get 10 good shots on a fill. They would be faster at first, but the spread would be huge.

I have a 1973 mark2 crosman pellgun in box.. I would like to enquire about valve upgrade to Mac 1 … I am in Canada and wondering about shipping. If you could please respond to let me know details. Thank you for your time . I’m looking forward to your response